Gainesville firm lands Navy contract

A Gainesville company will be providing construction services at the U.S. Navy base in Guantanamo Bay, Cuba, through a contract that could be worth as much as $4 million.

By ANTHONY CLARKSpecial to the Guardian

A Gainesville company will be providing construction services at the U.S. Navy base in Guantanamo Bay, Cuba, through a contract that could be worth as much as $4 million.Foresight Construction Group announced last week that it landed the contract through the U.S. Small Business Administration's 8(a) Business Development Program, which helps small, minority-owned businesses compete for government contracts.Foresight is owned by Juan Segarra, who is from Puerto Rico.Segarra said the company's first projects will include changing doors in the base hospital, renovating a security office and reroofing a hangar building. He said he does not know if Foresight will do any work on the infamous detention center but that it might reroof the building where trials are held."Hopefully, we'll get to see some interesting things," he said.The Navy contract is Foresight's third in the Caribbean, including work at Nevis-St. Kitts and the Bahamas.Segarra graduated from the University of Florida and worked for G.W. Robinson Builders in Gainesville and Edwards Construction Services in Ocala before founding Foresight in 2008. The company started by doing renovation and repair work at UF and now has contracts with other state universities, the military and the Gainesville Community Redevelopment Agency, as well as doing private commercial projects.Local work has included renovations at the P.K. Yonge Developmental Research School library and The Rock of Gainesville's downtown church, and installing bike racks downtown for the CRA.Foresight has 24 employees with headquarters in Gainesville, an office in Tampa and a trailer at Naval Air Station Jacksonville.Segarra said the company likely will add three to six more jobs based in Gainesville as a result of the Guantanamo contract.

Anthony Clark is the Gainesville Sun business editor.

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